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martes, 14 de enero de 2014

The New Frontier Hotel

The New Frontier Hotel was the hotel where Elvis made his first Las Vegas appearance, April 23 to May 26, 1956. The New Frontier's manager, Sammy Lewis, signed Elvis for four weeks. Elvis was advertised as the "Atomic Powered Singer." The featured act on the bill was the Freddy Martin Orchestra. Also on the bill were comedian Shecky Greene; Johnny Cochrane; Dave Leonard and Bob Hunter; the Venus Starlets, who danced behind Elvis; Jack Tiegen; and Marge Baker and the Martin-Men. In the Venus Room, Elvis performed all his hits plus, "Long Tall Sally," " I Got a Woman," and " Money Honey."

Because of the poor reception by the middle age audience, Col Parker and the New Frontier ended Elvis engagement after only 2 weeks. May 6 was the last show. He was temporarily replaced by Roberta Sherwood before Jana Mason, a staturesque brunette torch singer, competed the engagement. Elvis would not play Las Vegas again until 1969 thirteen years later.__

Elvis Presley at The New Frontier Hotel April 1956

Elvis Presley's first Vegas appearance at the New Frontier Hotel in April 1956.

Elvis at the New Fontier Hotel : 1956.

In April, Colonel Parker booked Elvis, Scotty Moore, Bill Black and D.J. Fontana for a two week engagement at the New Frontier beginning on April 23rd. The flyer for the Hotel advertised Freddy Martin and his orchestra, who were scheduled to do a stage show version of the Broadway musical Oklahoma!

Also on the bill were comedian Shecky Greene and as an added attraction, the 'Atomic Powered Singer', Elvis Presley. Since Nevada was the home of Atomic powered testing, Parker thought the name would be catchy.

On April 21, the Las Vegas Sun reported, 'The handsome 21-year-old rock 'n' roller's appearance in the latest Sammy Lewis production is considered to be the Las Vegas entertainment scoop of the year.

The young vocalist will be featured in one of the most lavish productions ever presented in the Venus Room, Lewis stated. Freddy Martin and his band, comic Shecky Greene, the Venus Starlets and a cast of more than 60 performers will make up the entertainment package'.

While Elvis was already becoming quite popular with teens around the country, he was not the typical Las Vegas Strip entertainer of the time and his shows were met with a cool reception.

After the first performance, at which the audience politely applauded, but showed none of the wild enthusiasm to which they were accustomed, Scotty, Bill and D.J. knew they were in for a long two weeks.

Bill Willard, a reviewer for the Las Vegas Sun newspaper, panned the performance writing, 'For the teen-agers, the long, tall Memphis lad is a whiz; for the average Vegas spender or showgoer, a bore. His musical sound with a combo of three is uncouth, matching to a great extent the lyric content of his nonsensical songs'.

D.J. Fontana said, 'I don't think the people there were ready for Elvis. He was mostly for teenagers, kids. We worked with Freddie Martin's orchestra and here we were three little pieces making all that noise. We tried everything we knew. Usually Elvis could get them on his side. It didn't work that time. The Colonel did a show for teenagers on Saturday, and it was just jam-packed, with everyone screaming and hollering'.

Elvis, Bill and Scotty performing in the Venus Room at the New Frontier.

Willard may have captured the dismay that older Vegas audiences had with the young upstart, but Las Vegas resident Ed Jameson caught a vision of the future Elvis would have in Vegas. Penning a rebuttal to Willard's review, Jameson wrote, 'He is not a Rock 'n' Roller nor is he a cowboy singer. He is something new coming over the horizon all by himself and he deserves his ever-growing audience. Nobody should miss him.

Parents would do well to take their children to hear him.

It would be a good way to get to know and understand your own kids'.

Between Shows : Freddie Bell and The Bell Boys

On their off hours the band did pretty much what they did in any town: they hung out in the bar. None of them were interested in the casinos. One night they all went out to check out the other acts on the strip. Performing at the Sahara lounge were Freddie Bell and The Bell Boys. They had a hit in 1955 with a song titled Hound dog that also had been a hit for R&B singer Big Mama Thornton. When they heard them perform that night, they thought the song would be a good one for them to do for comic relief.

'We loved the way they did it', says Scotty. 'They had a piano player who stood up and played -- and the way he did his legs they looked like rubber bands bending back and forth. Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller wrote the the song for Big Mama Thornton, but Freddie and The Bell Boys had a different set of lyrics. Elvis got his lyrics from those guys. He knew the original lyrics but he didn't use them'.

Elvis' closing performance on May 6, 1956 was recorded and initially released on Elvis Aron Presley, the 8-record box set released in connection with Elvis' 25th Anniversary with RCA in November 1980.

Although Elvis would later visit often and make movies there, it would be at least 13 years before Elvis would perform on stage in Las Vegas again and by then it would be without Scotty, Bill and D.J.

Liberace, now performing at the the Riviera, attended one of the performances with his brother George. Afterwards they went backstage and they hammed it up for the press with Liberace borrowing Scotty's guitar.